Honor Passion Sunday with your own palm decorations

Members of the Hispanic community at Our Lady of the Hills Church in Columbia and other parishes around the state are gathering palm branches and other green plants to post on their front doors in honor of Palm Sunday. (Provided)

Palm Sunday, which is on April 5 this year, is the beginning of Holy Week.

It is a day usually celebrated with processions, music and the handing out of palm branches to everyone who attends Sunday Mass, along with crosses made from the palms.

This year, even though public Masses have been cancelled because of the coronavirus, that doesn’t mean people have to let the day go by without celebrating.

The Christ Experience Ministry, a Hispanic young adult program, is urging people around the diocese to take a palm branch or any other green branches available, decorate it with red or white ribbons, and display it on their doors this Sunday as an observance of Palm Sunday.

The idea has been circulating in dioceses around the United States, in Mexico and in Latin America for the past two weeks, as many of the faithful currently under stay-at-home orders still seek a way to observe the day.

Members of the Christ Experience Ministry found out about the idea and decided to promote it around South Carolina through Youtube videos in English and Spanish, said Estela Landaverde, Hispanic youth ministry coordinator for the diocese.

“It’s just a way to keep Palm Sunday alive even though we can’t be in a church,” Landaverde said. “It’s a way to remind ourselves about what the day means.”

Watch the Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/io8ksEbCZD0